First
by dramaq
Summary: Tooru's struggling to write a memoir with the prompt "Romantic first." Yuujiro offers to give him something to write about. "What had he been thinking? Yuujiro would never act like that, would never do that to him, a fellow boy. Of course not... He was just helping a friend." Yuujiro/Tooru.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey everyone! This is my first fic in this fandom, and I'm very excited! Let me know what you think!**

**This fic is Yuujiro/Tooru. I do not own Princess Princess.**

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If Tooru were to exercise complete and utter focus, his remaining homework would take him only about a half hour to complete. For the fourth time that night, he glanced at the clock. 10:12. He should be done around 10:40 then. Good. That wasn't so bad. Tooru took a deep breath, and clicked his pen.

_And... GO!_

Nothing happened.

_Ready... GO!_

His page remained blank. He tossed his pen down to down it. The truth was, Tooru had absolutely no idea what he was trying to write. He was a strong student, and the thought of skipping out on his homework was positively abhorrent, but unless some miracle happened, Tooru was doomed to miss an assignment for the first time.

"Tooru? How much longer will you be?"

"Ah! Sorry, Yuujiro. Did you want to go to bed?" Tooru swiveled around to face his friend, who was lounging on his bed reading manga.

"No, no. I just thought we could watch a movie or something. I'm not really tired."

"Oh, okay." Tooru begrudgingly turned back to his blank paper. "I'm still working on this so..."

"What are you still working on? We didn't have much homework today."

"It's this damn memoir assignment. My prompt was 'romantic first.'"

"That's what I got too. What do you have so far?"

Tooru held up his blank paper in answer.

"It doesn't have to be original, Tooru, just write about your first kiss or something." "Um... well..."

"Nobody's gonna see it, only the teacher."

"Yeah... but I-"

"Who was your first kiss Tooru?" This was it. There was no more hiding it. "Tooru? Who was she?"

"Actually... it was a he." Tooru stared at his paper watching the story that he _should_ be writing flash before his eyes. A crush. An insane sister. A mistake.

"Oh..." Tooru heard the manga shut. "Tooru... whenever I joked about you... uh... liking boys... I didn't mean... I mean- I didn't know..."

Tooru sighed. May as well just tell him. "It was you."

"Wait... what?"

"You were my first kiss." Tooru ventured a glance back at Yuujiro. His eyes were wide, his jaw unhinged, and an uncharacteristic blush stained his cheeks. "Well... you were dressed in your princess costume, so I guess it was pretty much like kissing a girl." Tooru forced out a chuckle and awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, all the while cursing himself for telling Yuujiro at all. Honestly, he should have just kept it to himself.

"L-look it's your fault!" Yuujiro sprang up and pointed an accusatory finger at Tooru.

"Hey! We agreed it was _your_ fault!"

"I wouldn't have done it if I thought it was your first kiss! You should have told me!"

"What? Told you I'd never been kissed before? I have my manly pride!"

"You sound like Mikoto!"

"Well, you sound like a jerk!"

The two friends glared at each other. Metaphorical steam snaked out of their ears and quivering fists. Their faces scrunched. Their lips twitched. They elicited a tiny snort. And finally, they burst out laughing.

"M-manly pride!" Tooru gasped. "I d-did... sound... like Mikoto!"

"A jerk! A jerk!" Yuujiro pounded his fist on the floor and clutched his gut. "What a... shitty comeback!"

Tooru and Yuujiro carried on for quite some time - quite a bit longer than the situation called for. They pounded the walls, the floor, the beds. They gasped for breath and didn't bother wiping away tears. Finally, they collapsed. Lying side by side on the floor, they rubbed their sore stomachs and stifled the occasional residual giggle until their breathing calmed and silence reclaimed the room.

Everything seemed just as it was before. They were just two friends bound by a common frilly fate. Just two, normal, heterosexual - _definitely_ heterosexual - male friends. Yuujiro grabbed Tooru's hand. This is normal, Tooru reassured himself, still normal. The two friends held hands all the time.

"Tooru... I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"It _was_ my fault. I'm sorry I stole your first kiss."

"Yuujiro..." Tooru rolled his head over to face his friend.

"I'm sorry you don't have anything to write about."

"Well _that's_ not your fault."

"Tooru, I have an idea. I can fix this." Yuujiro sat up and pulled his friend up with him. "Why don't you write a half-lie?"

"A what?"

"A half-lie. We'll play out a scenario right now and you can write about that, kay?"

"Um, I don't-"

"You met a girl while picking up chicks over summer break, and you invited her to your room. Yuujiro is out on a hot date-"

"That doesn't sound right..."

"-so you're alone with you're girlfriend, Yuu-chan."

"Yuu-chan?" Yuujiro flashed his princess smile, and not-so-subtly pointed to himself. "O-oh. You're Yuu-chan."

"Thanks for inviting me here Tooru-kun. I've missed you sooooo much."

"Uh... uh..." No matter how much he tried, Tooru simply couldn't see his friend as a girl. After seeing him strut around in gorgeous frilly dresses, heels, and pigtails, the normal Yuujiro - the one currently clad in a simple gray oversized T-shirt - seemed incredibly manly. If Tooru was going to be at all believable, he just had to imagine Yuujiro as a princess. "N-no problem Yuujir- uh... Yuu-chan." Tooru flushed. It was impossible. Yuujiro was Yuujiro, and as much as everyone seemed to think (and fantasize) otherwise, he was _not_ a girl.

"Oh, Tooru-kun!" Yuujiro grasped Tooru's hands and leant in close... too close. "You're the kindest, most honest boy I've ever met. And you're _so_ handsome!" Tooru's heart thundered in his chest. Not good. This shouldn't be happening. This was Yuujiro. Not "Yuu-chan." It was his friend, _Yuujiro._ "From the moment I saw you, I knew I wanted to be by your side." Tooru felt Yuujiro's breath against his lips.

"R-really?" Tooru squeaked. If he hadn't been blushing before, he certainly was now. Even the tips of his ears were burning. "I-I mean, uh... me too, Yuuji- uh... Yuu-chan." Why did Yuujiro look so seductive? His golden eyes were hooded, yet dangerously focused. He was cute... handsome... beautiful... His lips were full, parted, close, _so _close. Tooru wanted to... he wanted to...

"Kiss me, Tooru," Yuujiro breathed.

Tooru didn't hesitate. He grabbed Yuujiro's face and slammed their lips together - so hard that it hurt. Tooru's tongue immediately delved into his friend's mouth. He devoured Yuujiro's mouth, swirling, sucking, pushing. Sloppy. Teeth scraping, lips floundering... Air, air. He needed air! Tooru pulled back and gasped for breath, only to be hit with the full force of Yuujiro's wide, shocked eyes.

Oh god, what had he done?

"S-s-s-sorry. I-I-I... I don't..." Tooru's eyes filled with tears, and he could only stare at the blurred image of Yuujiro, his mind jumbled with shame and excitement and shame and confusion and shame and shame and _shame_.

"Tooru." Yuujiro's voice was breathy, his visage confident. Yuujiro raised his index finger and gently traced his friend's swollen lips. Tooru's breathing hitched. "Does it hurt?" It didn't. It felt... it felt good. Yuujiro slowly withdrew his finger; it was lightly stained with blood. Tooru's eyes grew impossibly wider as Yuujiro curled his tongue around the tip of his finger, gracefully licking it clean.

"Y-Y-Yuujiro?"

"Shhhh." He smirked. "I know I missed some." Yuujiro leant closer, closer, and Tooru, in his disjointed, flustered state, hadn't the slightest idea what was happening until-

"Hnuhaa!" Tooru elicited something between a gasp and a breathy moan as he felt something warm and wet run over his puffy lips. Tooru felt Yuujiro's hand firmly grasp the back of his head and and press Tooru into him, as he sucked Tooru's bottom lip into his mouth.

"Mmmff!" Tooru didn't know what was happening anymore. He was being sucked and nipped and toyed with, and all he could do was sit there taking it... _enjoying_ it. Yuujiro's tongue slipped into his mouth, and Tooru's groan was lost in his friend's mouth. Yuujiro expertly swiveled his head until their mouths fit together like puzzle pieces, allowing Yuujiro to sink deeper. Tooru could only follow Yuujiro's ministrations. He was utterly enthralled, filled, and dominated.

Yuujiro's grip on Tooru softened. He slowed the kiss and drew back, dragging Tooru's abused bottom lip with his teeth. He ran his tongue over it one last time before releasing it to rejoin Tooru's flushed, bewildered face.

"Well..." Yuujiro pushed himself off the floor and wiped his mouth on his upper arm. "Got enough to write about?"

"Huh?"

"Your first kiss. Can you write about it now?"

Oh, that's right. Tooru shook his head furiously and rubbed the spit off his mouth. That was supposed to be his first kiss with the imaginary girlfriend, "Yuu-chan." Of course. What had he been thinking? Yuujiro would never act like that, would never _do _that to him, a fellow boy. Of course not. He was just helping a friend. Images of the past few minutes flashed through Tooru's mind. Yuujiro's smoldering eyes, his lips, his tongue, and that horrible, wonderful _desire_. Oh God, what _had_ he been thinking?

"Tooru?" Yuujiro was apparently finding it very difficult to bite back laughter.

Tooru jumped up indignantly, wobbled slightly, and steadied himself. "Yes, thank you, _Yuu-chan_." There. Nothing to be embarrassed about. He wasn't kissing Yuujiro, not really... He only got a bit lost in the fantasy. Yuujiro couldn't tease him for that, or... yes he _could_, but he couldn't harp on it for too long. It's not like Yuujiro was picking on Mikoto here.

He plopped back into his chair, and began to write easily - surprisingly easily. The words fell out of his head and settled with a fluidity that he had never experienced before. He scribbled furiously, just barely keeping up with the narrative zipping through his mind. There. In only fifteen minutes, Tooru had written about his first kiss with Yuu-chan. After reading through it, fixing a few mistakes, and scrubbing out the multiple "Yuujiro"s that had mistakenly replaced "Yuu-chan" and the "he"s that were really meant to be "she"s, he tucked the short memoir into his folder and clambered into bed.

"Ready to go to bed Yuujiro?"

Instead of replying, Yuujiro stared hard at Tooru, studying and assessing, his face unreadable and his eyes sharp. Here it was. The beginning of Yuujiro's infamous, cold-hearted teasing. Yuujiro opened his mouth, as if he were about to say something, but snapped it shut and flopped onto his pillow, facing away from Tooru.

"Goodnight Tooru."

Somehow, Tooru was disappointed, as if... he had _wanted_ Yuujiro to make some big deal out of what had happened between them, or at the very least to acknowledge it.

"Goodnight Yuujiro." Tooru's voice came out as little more than a whisper. He shut the light, and attempted to sleep.

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**AN: I'm not sure whether to bump it up to M, and I'm not sure whether to involve Mikoto (I just love him. Why does he have to be so steadfastly straight in cannon?). Let me know how you think I should proceed! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello everyone! I must say that after working in the Death Note fandom, this fandom seems quite barren. I wasn't expecting such a lack of response :'( That said, I am extremely grateful to my reviewers so far. I am perhaps even more grateful than I would have been normally. So thank you so much! I WILL continue this story whether or not I receive encouragement, but I would, of course, appreciate reviews.**

**Thank you for reading!**

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"No, no, _no_! There is no way I am doing this! Kouno! Shihoudani! Where are you going!"

The two Princesses in question were strolling out of the student council room. The lunch bell had rung ten minutes ago, and, although he was excused, Tooru disliked being too late for class.

"Can't you guys hear me?" Mikoto called after the pair.

"Yes, idiot," they replied in unison. The truth was, Tooru hadn't slept very well the night before, and the pink-haired princess was giving him a monstrous head-ache. Tooru stole a sidelong glance at Yuujiro. His friend didn't exactly look like he'd had his beauty sleep either.

"Hey!" Mikoto dashed around his two friends and stood before them in the hallway, effectively blocking their path. "This isn't just any old task! I-I-I... I _can't_ be in a kissing booth!"

"Yes you can." Tooru and Yuujiro drawled.

"I have a girlfriend!"

"Mikoto..." Yuujiro's expression darkened, and he leered menacingly over the smaller boy. "You're not letting your girlfriend come before your princess work, are you?"

Mikoto gasped scandalously and shrunk away, wagging his head.

Tooru nodded solemnly. "I didn't know you were so untrustworthy, Mikoto."

"I'm not!" he cried.

"And to think, we opened our hearts to you!" Yuujiro grasped Tooru's hands and gazed into the distance.

"Only to have you betray us!" Tooru matched his friend's melodrama.

"No!" Mikoto cried and promptly collapsed to the floor.

Yuujiro and Tooru held their pose for a good two seconds before crossing their arms and smirking down at their victim.

"Look Mikoto, we understand that you don't want to kiss boys when you have a girlfriend..." Tooru began.

"But you just have to do your job, simple as that," Yuujiro finished.

"Kouno... Shihoudani..." Mikoto glanced up with tears in his eyes. "If you loved someone, would you really feel okay about kissing someone else?"

"Well," Yuujiro chuckled lightly and waved his hand dismissively, "I've never been in love, so I can't say!"

For some unfathomable reason, something inside Tooru's chest twisted painfully at those words.

"Kouno?" Mikoto turned to him.

"Um..." Why were images of Yuujiro flying through his head? Just because Yuujiro was his first and second kiss didn't mean he was anything special. Certainly not comparable to Mikoto's girlfriend. "Well... I... um... it doesn't matter if I'm in love or not. I just do my job regardless, Mikoto, and you should too."

Yuujiro raised his brows. Mikoto tilted his head. The three princesses sunk into a heavy silence, and Tooru mentally kicked himself.

_Now they'll think I'm in love_

Which he wasn't. Definitely not.

Tooru couldn't keep a light pink from slowly creeping over his cheeks.

"So..." Yuujiro was the one to break the silence. "We should go to class."

"Yeah." Tooru ventured a glance at his two friends. Yuujiro looked oddly contemplative. Mikoto, thoroughly perplexed.

Yuujiro gently tugged Tooru's elbow, and they began walking down the hallway. Mikoto trailed behind them for a minute before turning down another hallway.

"Must he _always_ throw a fit about _every_ princess job?" Yuujiro muttered.

"It comes with his princess image," Tooru grinned. "Resistant and childish. He's just an adorable little brat."

The two sniggered, and just like that, the spell of awkwardness was broken.

The two friends turned into their classroom, now about twenty minutes late. Before they could each take their respective seats, however, the teacher called out to them. "Oh, there they are! Congratulations, Kouno-kun."

Tooru looked past the sea of spaced, blushing faces to find his teacher standing in front of the class, waving a few notebook pages around. "What?"

"The best memoir-of-the-week is Kouno-kun's memoir titled, 'My Sunshine.'"

"W-w-what?" No. No, this couldn't be happening.

"And now, if you'll take your seat Kouno-kun, I will read aloud what I found to be the most striking and beautiful excerpt."

Tooru sunk into his chair, face redder than Mikoto's hair, and desperately tried to think of a passage that wasn't horrifyingly humiliating.

The teacher cleared his throat. "_Sometimes, when the light struck her just right, Yuu-chan's beauty was too much to bear. Whenever the bright sun reflected on her long, yellow hair, I felt as if she were the sun itself; she was too bright and too brilliant to gaze at for long, but I could feel her warm radiance. When she was in my dorm-room that night, it was the first time I had seen her without the bright summer sun. That's when I realized that she didn't need the sunshine to make her beautiful, she radiated a light of her own. I can't tell you what she said that night, only that I couldn't form a coherent sentence in return. I was drawn to her like a fly to a flame. We were so close, I could feel her sweet breath on my lips. All I knew in that moment was that Yuu-chan was my best friend and the most important person in my universe, and that I wanted, so very desperately, only one thing - to kiss him_ - oh, uh... you meant her." The teacher cleared his throat. _"...and that I wanted, so very desperately, only one thing - to kiss her._" He corrected.

You could have heard a pin drop. Every eye in the room was transfixed on Tooru. Every mouth was unhinged. Every face was flushed, though none were so red as Tooru's himself.

Tooru scanned every identical face in the room excluding Yuujiro's... he couldn't bear to look at his friend... his best friend.

_Yuu-Chan was my best friend._

Why on Earth did he write that? Tooru fervently wished a giant chasm would divide the earth beneath his desk so that he might fall in. He could fall forever or simply die, he didn't care, just so long as he was swallowed by darkness and infinitely far from-

"Princess Tooru, your love is beautiful!" A voice emerged from the masses.

Tooru snapped out of his morbid fantasy and swiftly donned his Princess mask. He couldn't just sit there blushing. Who was he, Mikoto? "Thank you very much."

"Who was she?"

"How did you meet?"

"No one is more beautiful than you, Princess!"

"No one can resist Princess Tooru's charm!"

None of the students were in their seats anymore. Tooru was surrounded by hormonal male students who, thankfully, kept a strict two foot radius around him. The teacher didn't seem to mind; in fact, he was virtually indistinguishable from Tooru's fans.

"Oh, Princess, will you shower us with your overflowing love?"

Tooru tilted his head and blew a kiss. His peers swooned. Tooru imagined little cartoon hearts bugging out of their eyes.

"I wish I could be kissed by Princess Tooru!"

"Oh me too!"

"Me too!"

"Kiss _me_, Princess!"

"Actually," Tooru folded his hands on his desk, "my fellow Princesses and I will be hosting a kissing booth at the next school festival. Be sure to come!" Wouldn't President Arisada be proud?

Tooru, in the throws of his Princess duties, had nearly forgotten his embarrassment when-

"Oh, but what will Yuu-chan say?"

"I don't want to ruin your love!"

"A-actually," Tooru's smile almost faltered, "Yuu-chan and I aren't together."

"What!"

"How come?"

"She wasn't good enough for you!"

"That dirty harlot!"

"No, no, no!" Tooru's voice rose above the rabble. "It just turned out that he... uh... _she_ didn't feel the way... that... that I thought she felt about me."

His classmates' eyes widened in shock and every mouth choked back further praise and compliments. Tooru internally rolled his eyes. It would seem that no one could believe that the marvelous Princess Tooru could possibly be rejected. Though, Tooru mused, if they knew "Yuu-chan" was in fact the Western Princess, they may have a different opinion. Tooru was beautiful, yes, but Yuujiro was on a separate plane. He was the epitome of untouchable, unreachable, pure beauty.

Tooru searched the sea of shock for his fellow Princess, half-hoping to find an encouraging look and half-hoping to not find him at all. If Yuujiro were to simply slip off the face of the Earth, it certainly would solve a lot of Tooru's problems.

"I've met Yuu-chan." The excitable herd of students (and one teacher) shuffled around to find Yuujiro, who was calmly sitting atop a desk in the far corner of the room, distinctly separate from his audience. "Yuu-chan is beautiful."

"Not more beautiful than you, Princess!" Yuujiro smirked conspiratorially.

"No, no, impossible!"

"She is probably the loveliest creature on Earth," Yuujiro nodded solemnly.

Tooru was unsure whether his friend was saving his own ass or simply taking the opportunity to gloat.

"Yes," Yuujiro continued, strolling toward the front of the classroom, "she is stunning, captivating, and _mind-blowing-ly_ sexy. I would have taken her for myself if I could."

"Oh, Princess-" an unremarkable student began to proclaim, but Yuujiro silenced him with a cold, fierce look: the Princess was _clearly_ in the midst of a dramatic monologue.

"However," Yuujiro's glare melted into a mask of distant melancholy, "Yuu-chan had a dreadful personality. She was cold, and she delighted in the torment of others. But Princess Tooru could withstand all this, and he was the best friend and companion she had ever had. Yuu-chan didn't reject Tooru. She simply disappeared after that one, lovely kiss. Like a dream, or..." Yuujiro's eyes flickered toward Tooru, "a fantasy. But perhaps one day, if we _all_ believe, she will return." Yuujiro donned his standard princess smile and bowed with flourish. "Thank you."

The room erupted into applause. Boys wiped tears from their eyes. Their teacher, sobbing, waved his handkerchief about blubbering "Bravo! Brava! Bravissimo!"

The crowd migrated to Yuujiro. The encircled him, kissing the floor before him (they didn't dare kiss his feet) and singing his praises. The students of Fujimori were notoriously incapable of distinguishing fact from fantasy. The validity of Yuujiro's claims and even those of Tooru weren't praised for their sincerity but for their beauty. Every word the Princesses uttered were an extension of the school-wide fantasy, no matter how illogical, inconsequential, or immaterial those words may be.

Tooru, as an admittedly beautiful person, fit quite well into a school obsessed with beauty. He could intellectually understand the need for the Princess system and he happily accepted his central role within it. The ambiguity of this fantasy, however, was more difficult to accept. His fellow students may be able to accept and laud Yuujiro's contribution to Tooru's story, but as a player within that tale, Tooru didn't have that luxury.

Tooru slumped into his seat and calmly waited for the classroom to return to equilibrium, which he knew would take a considerable amount of time. Tooru subtly sought to lock eyes with his friend, hoping that a glance between them would elucidate the meaning behind the romance of Tooru and Yuu-chan, but his hopes were dashed when he met the unnaturally neutral eyes of Yuujiro.

Tooru dutifully tuned out his flailing teacher who was vainly attempting to salvage some part of his lesson plan and pointedly ignored the blushing boys ogling him.

_Yuu-chan didn't reject Tooru._

Yes, "Yuu-chan" didn't reject him, but that didn't say anything about Yuujiro. Just because Tooru happened to blur the line between his fake girlfriend and his best friend didn't mean that Yuujiro suffered the same delusion.

The bell rang, and the obtrusive noise didn't quite register in Tooru's wandering mind until the classroom was already emptied.

"Tooru." Yuujiro's voice was frustratingly hollow.

Tooru dutifully rose and trailed after Yuujiro. Only after they were fully protected by the privacy of the P-Room did Yuujiro speak. "You know," he began, seemingly addressing the naked wall, "I don't care if you're in love with a female version of myself. I mean... so is the rest of the school. And... if you want... we can... um... pretend that..." Tooru's eyes widened in realization. "I mean..." Yuujiro's face slowly faded from pink to cherry red. "I'm just saying that, since we're friends... I don't care if you would want to um... pretend... more?"

Tooru found himself physically incapable of response.

Yuujiro's eyes flickered toward Tooru, then darted away once more. He slowly crossed the room and flopped on his bed, feigning nonchalance. "Am I wrong? Isn't that what your story meant?" Tooru still couldn't connect his mind to his tongue. "I'm just trying to be a good friend, you know. The rest of the school has us to save them from the misery of an all boys school, and we don't have that but... we do-"

"...have each other," Tooru finished.

"So...?" Yuujiro inquired of the ceiling.

In answer, Tooru crossed the room the three long strides and planted a kiss on his friend's lips. Yuujiro's uncertainty melted from his face, replaced with a wide grin. He grabbed the back of Tooru's head and pulled him into a kiss that very closely mimicked the occurrences of the night before.

_Yuujiro was wrong, of course. Tooru didn't love a female version of Yuujiro. But then again..._

Tooru gasped as Yuujiro bit into his neck.

_...this was most certainly close enough._

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**AN: Thank you!**

**BTW, readers should expect the rating to change to M at some point in the future. ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

"Mikoto. We have been cross-dressing for nearly a year."

"I know! Isn't it awful?"

"So, how can it be that you _still_ can't put eyeliner on correctly!"

"You're so mean, Shihoudani!"

"Give it to me. I'll do it."

"No! I can do it!"

"Mikoto..."

Tooru heard a crash and a scuffle.

"You made me stab myself in the eye!"

"How unladylike of you, Mikoto!"

"I'm a man! A _man_!"

Tooru ignored the cat-fight unfolding mere feet from him in favor of his _Rose Corail _lipliner. He had only recently added the product to his routine. Application was difficult, but it did wonders for his pitifully average lips, creating the illusion of fullness. Plus, it helped his lipstick last longer.

"Take it like a man, Mikoto!"

"Get off of me! I hate eyeliner! I have sensitive eyes! Ah! You stabbed me!"

"That's because you won't stop moving. Be grateful I'm bestowing my wondrous makeup skills upon you."

"Just get off of me!"

"No."

Tooru smiled at his finished face in the mirror. There would only be a few more events like this - only a few more times he could transform into such a beauty. True, the shoes hurt his feet and the layers of fabric could be suffocating. True, his wig was itchy and the makeup made him sweat. But Tooru embraced all of it. Just physically feeling his costume was, ironically, a comfort. Through all the unpleasant sensations, he could perpetually feel his character and his mask around him, giving him the freedom to think and behave as only a lovely girl is permitted to.

"There, it's done. What a pretty little girl you are!"

"I'm not a girl!"

Mikoto surely didn't share Tooru's sentiments, and he honestly wasn't quite sure how Yuujiro felt about their frequent gender switches. Yuujiro seemed happy enough in a skirt, but Tooru had a feeling it was simply because Yuujiro had the confidence to remain, at his core, unaffected by any outfit.

Tooru gazed at the blue-haired beauty in the mirror. According to the student body, he was both lovely and tantalizing, but he couldn't help but wonder if Yuujiro also found him attractive as a Princess.

"Come on, Tooru," Yuujiro called. "We'll be late."

"Coming," Tooru sighed, and reluctantly turned his back on his reflection. This year had nurtured his vanity, if nothing else.

"Wait!" Mikoto darted in front of him. "What's that, Kouno?"

"Hm?"

Mikoto whirled him around to face the mirror and gestured toward at a small, red and purple bruise at the base of his neck. A hickey. Tooru flushed. Damn Yuujiro...

"So... what is it Kouno?" Mikoto wagged his eyebrows in a startlingly lewd manner - for Mikoto, that is.

"U-uh. I got a hurt by a... by a... It was a..."

"A cat!" Yuujiro called.

"Yes! Yes, it was a cat!" Tooru nodded enthusiastically.

Mikoto narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't look like a scratch."

"That's because it was a bite." Yuujiro sauntered over and swung his arm around Tooru's shoulders. The rouge on Tooru's cheeks appeared to darken. "I saw it myself, Mikoto. It was a sexy little kitten, wasn't it Tooru?"

"U-uh, I wouldn't call a kitten _sexy_... It was cute, I guess."

Yuujiro's hand slid down Tooru's arm and around his waist. "You _sure_ the kitten wasn't sexy, Tooru?" Yuujiro's hand slid lower... lower... "You certainlt _seemed_ to like the kitten, Tooru." Just as Yuujiro's hand was closing in on his ass-

"I've got it!" Mikoto exclaimed.

"What, idiot?" Yuujiro and Tooru simultaneously drawled.

"Kouno has a girlfriend, and that girlfriend is a cat!"

Neither Tooru nor even Yuujiro could conjure an appropriately snarky and/or sarcastic response: Mikoto's stupidity had truly reached a new level.

"O-or maybe not..." Mikoto shrunk away from his friends' blank stares. "Maybe Kouno has a girlfriend that pretends to be a cat? Or looks like a cat? Or is named Cat? Or- or... something..."

"I don't have a girlfriend, Mikoto."

"You do!" Mikoto stomped his high-heeled foot. "There's no other explanation that you have a... a..." Mikoto surreptitiously glanced around the room before leaning in and whispering "a _love mark_."

In spite of the anxiety raised by nearly having their almost-relationship discovered, both Tooru and Yuujiro burst into hysterics.

"A _love mark_!" Tooru choked out.

"H-he had to whisper it!" Yuujiro gasped.

"Sh-shut up! I was being serious!" Mikoto whined.

"H-he was... serious!" Tooru braced himself on his makeup stool.

"S-say Mikoto." Yuujiro began to compose himself. "Does your girlfriend ever give you _love marks_?"

This set Tooru in to a fresh bout of hysterics, and he promptly collapsed to the floor.

"N-n-n-n-n-no!" Mikoto's face was pinker than his hair. "W-we never... I-I mean she never d-did anything like-"

"Looks like we beat him there, Tooru!" Tooru leapt up and high-fived his friend.

"I knew it!" Mikoto called.

_Oh shit._

Yuujiro and Tooru quickly sobered. They had been discovered - through their teasing of Mikoto, of all things. Tooru supposed this may be considered Karma.

Now what were they going to do? Word would surely get out. And whether they were considered to be two lovely ladies or two teen boys, they would certainly be labeled as gay. And, as Yuujiro frequently pointed out, what they were doing was _not_ gay.

"Kouno _did_ do... do... do _that_. And that must mean..." Yuujiro and Tooru shrunk back in embarrassment. "Kouno _does_ have a girlfriend named Cat who looks like a cat and enjoys pretending to be a cat!"

"Uh..." Yuujiro and Tooru shared a look of disbelief. "You got me!" Tooru smiled. "I do have a mysterious girlfriend who you _definitely _don't know. Sorry for keeping it from you!"

"I fully support your relationship!" Yuujiro grinned and slapped him on the back.

"Thanks, Yuujiro! Maybe you'll get a girlfriend too!"

"Yes. And her name will most certainly be Dog."

"Then we can go on a double date in the park with Cat and Dog."

"That sounds splendid."

"It's a date!"

The two shook hands and whirled toward the door, calling behind them "Come along, Mikoto!"

"Hold it!" Mikoto grabbed the Princesses by their ruffles.

"Is there a problem, Mikoto?" Tooru's plastic grin strained wider.

"Everything is as it should be. Right, Mikoto?"

"Kouno!" Mikoto pointed dramatically at the aforementioned teen. "You have a girlfriend, so now you really _must_ understand that we can't be in a kissing booth! You'll be cheating on her, Kouno!"

"If it's for work, it's not cheating," Tooru replied easily.

"Is that what Cat would say?" Mikoto challenged.

"Oh, Cat knows _all_ about the Princess job and is _very_ willing to let me kiss men."

"Y-you _told_ her!"

"Yes, Mikoto," Yuujiro openly smirked, now fully aware that Mikoto was perfectly oblivious. "Tooru has an honest relationship."

"I have an honest relationship too!" Mikoto cried.

"Well you _are _about to cheat on your girlfriend, Mikoto. After all, you haven't told her."

"No!" Mikoto cried.

"Let's go," Yuujiro nodded to Tooru, and the two promptly dragged the screaming pink-haired Princess out of the dressing room.

* * *

Tooru did not enjoy being in the kissing booth. His customers were either frozen and quivering as Tooru gently brushed his lip against theirs, or pushy and desperate. The latter would sloppily lick Tooru's pursed lips - thank God for lipliner - before the student counsel members, who served as body guards, forcibly removed them. Tooru did not enjoy either type of male student.

Of course, he didn't have the worst of it. It seemed as though every student was intent on sucking face with poor Mikoto, whereas all but a few students had the balls to attempt more than a chaste kiss with either Yuujiro or Tooru.

While he was _far_ from enjoying himself, Tooru's disgust was somewhat of a relief. After all, if he didn't feel a thing after kissing nearly every man in the school, he certainly wasn't gay. The question of homosexuality actually hadn't troubled Tooru at all until Yuujiro had brought it up the night before.

_"Tooru... what's this?" Yuujiro pressed his palm into the obvious bulge in Tooru's jeans._

_"A-ah!" Tooru attempted to pull away, only to find himself trapped between the wall and a panting, flushed Yuujiro. "D-don't-"_

_"What's wrong?" Yuujiro began to slowly rub. "You like it, don't you, Tooru? You were hard even before I touched you, Tooru."_

_This was another first. What should he do? Tooru awkwardly placed his hands on Yuujiro's biceps, then his face, then his waist, then... then... Wait. Shouldn't Tooru be, well, returning the favor? "W-w-well... what about... you, Yuu-chan?" Tooru gently pressed his fingers against Yuujiro's crotch - he was, in fact, hard._

_"Tooru!" Yuujiro sprung away. "What are you doing?"_

_"I-I-I... Well, I never really know what I'm doing..."_

_"__You__ can't touch __me_. _That would spoil the illusion! You're pretending I'm a girl!"_

_The thing was, Tooru had __never__ thought of Yuujiro as a girl. "R-right."_

_"If we're both dudes... mentally... this would be gay. But we like chicks. I like big boobs, and you like the comforting type, remember?"_

_"Y-yeah."_

_"So, we're not gay." Yuujiro stomped off to bed, leaving Tooru dumbfounded, unsatisfied, and oddly ashamed. "I'm not gay," Yuujiro muttered to himself, now hidden beneath his covers. "I'm __not__."_

Yuujiro didn't seem to like the prospect of either himself or Tooru being gay, and thus, Tooru was pleased to find that he was still straight. He just happened to like his male best friend... and Tooru supposed he'd have to keep the "male" part a secret.

The kissing booth was just about closed - there were only six boys left - when they suddenly heard a shriek.

"MIKOTO!" The three princesses looked up to behold a pretty brunette girl standing in the doorway, violently shuddering with rage.

"How could you do this to me?" She stomped over to the table.

"W-wait! Megumi-san!"

"You're wearing women's clothing and kissing boys!"

"I-It's not what it looks like!"

"Actually," Yuujiro whispered to Tooru, "it's exactly what it looks like."

"Your sister told me you were gay, but I didn't believe her!"

"She _what_?" Mikoto's high pitched shriek did nothing to promote a manly image.

"You broke my heart, Mikoto." With that, she ran out of the room.

"Wow, your girlfriend is pretty, Mikoto," Yuujiro patted him on the head.

"Yeah, she's lovely, Mikoto," Tooru nodded. "How did he manage to catch such a pretty older woman?"

"Yes, yes" Yuujiro's patting grew a little rougher. "There's no telling why a girl like her would date him."

"Guys, this is serious!" Mikoto cried.

"Go after her then," Tooru shrugged. "I'm sure she'll understand."

"The fact that he hasn't already makes him a pretty bad boyfriend, doesn't it Tooru?"

"Yes it does, Yuujiro."

And Mikoto was off.

Yuujiro and Tooru only had a moment to mischievously grin before they were interrupted by a pointed grunt from the next student in line.

_Oh right_.

"Next, please!" Tooru smiled.

"Come here, Aizawa-kun," Yuujiro winked.

"She knows my name!" The indiscriminate teen swooned.

Yuujiro and Tooru were formal Princesses once more.

The last students blissfully stumbled off, the student counsel members congratulated the remaining Princesses on a job well done, and Yuujiro and Tooru were permitted at last to wash off their make-up, step out of their heels, and peel off their dresses.

"There sure were a lot of students there," Tooru commented as he peeled off his fake eyelashes, happy to be within the safe walls of the dressing room.

"Not everyone showed."

"Yeah, like Akira. Which I was glad for." Tooru chuckled.

"And sadly, Cat didn't show her lovely face either."

"Mmm," Tooru affirmed, unable to keep a smile off his face. "And I was so hoping she'd bring her best friend, Dog. You'd make such a nice couple!"

"God, Mikoto's an idiot."

"Yeah, he is... Hey... Yuujiro?"

"What?"

"What would we do if Mikoto actually did find out what we're doing?"

Yuujiro's washcloth-clad hand froze for the briefest of moments before continuing the path down his face. "We would tell him the truth, and he probably wouldn't believe us. I mean, he wouldn't believe I'm selflessly posing as your girlfriend. He'd probably think I-I _like_ you... or something stupid like that."

"Yeah, that would be pretty stupid," Tooru muttered.

"And he'd also probably think you liked me as a guy. Which is stupid... right?"

"U-uh, yeah, stupid. Look, I've got homework, I've got to go."

"Tooru? Hey!" But Tooru was already gone. He ran barefoot to his room, his half-pinned wig nearly flying off in the process, hoping in vain that doing so would stop that painful stabbing in his chest, that stinging in his eyes, that burning in his throat, that thought echoing in the back of his head that he was the worst kind of liar. Because what he was hiding was truly disgusting.

_Yuujiro, I've always seen you as a man, and I've always, always liked you._

But, of course, he could never say that. So maybe Tooru _was_ a little gay. He could be fine with it, but if Yuujiro knew... it would ruin everything.

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

Yuujiro never asked Tooru why he had run off. For days Tooru had dreaded the question.

_Tooru,what upset you in the dressing room?_

Or...

_Tooru, what the hell was with you the other day?_

Or even...

_You're not gay for me, are you, Tooru?_

Because Tooru knew he would answer honestly.

Thankfully, over a week passed without mention of the incident. Tooru and Yuujiro's relationship evolved into a predictable pattern. By day they were best friends. Together they went to class, and together they ate lunch. Together they teased Mikoto, and together they doted on Akira. They laughed and made inside jokes - only some of which were laced with innuendo. They painted each other's nails and suggested make-up products - notably normal occupations considering their position in the school. By night, however, they fell easily into the rolls of lovers. They kissed and they touched. They panted and they moaned. Yuujiro made his boundaries clear and Tooru obeyed so naturally that neither of them were distracted. Tooru was a boy whose girlfriend didn't wish to be touched below her waste or beneath her bra, and that was all there was to it.

Tooru could be satisfied with this. All he needed was an excuse to kiss Yuujiro and to hold him, to be kissed by Yuujiro and to be held by him. He needed to share his secrets, fears, anxieties, and frivolities with Yuujiro and to listen to what Yuujiro needed to share in turn. To comfort and to be comforted. Tooru needed to have a relationship with Yuujiro that existed on a higher emotional level than that of simple friends - the type of relationship that they had shared for months prior - without being questioned. For Tooru, this was enough.

But in expressing and acting upon his feelings, Tooru couldn't help but feel a touch of guilt and the tiniest sting of rejection. Tooru was, after all, actively deceiving Yuujiro by referring to him as a girl, and the fact that simply telling Yuujiro he saw him as a man would end their relationship felt like rejection - no... _was_ a rejection.

Tooru, Yuujiro, and Mikoto sat at the corner table in their favorite cafe, Kathy's Coffee. Most of their classmates opted to hang out at the strategically placed Starbucks across the street from their school, but the three Princesses had reason enough to keep a low profile outside of the classroom. Besides, they enjoyed the ten minute walk to Kathy's and the relaxed, subtly bohemian atmosphere. Akira occasionally joined the trio, but today he was tied up with his enslavement to President Arisada.

"How many times have you called her, Mikoto?" Yuujiro nonchalantly sipped his black coffee.

"Eleven," Mikoto informed his folded hands.

"Only eleven times all week? Would have expected more," Yuujiro smirked conspiratorially toward Tooru.

"No... eleven times today."

"Mikoto! You're harassing her," Tooru chided.

"But what else can I do? I-I love her!" Mikoto buried his face in his hands.

There were infinite jibes either Tooru or Yuujiro could have made. They could have accused Mikoto of being desperate, dishonest, clingy, or even feminine. They could have insinuated that he was about to cry or calmly noted, as they had many times before, that Mikoto's frozen strawberry swirl drink was the _exact _color of his hair. All of these things were easy to say and very true, but for once, the duo kept their mouths shut.

"Kouno?" Mikoto lifted his head slightly. "What would you do if Cat didn't answer your calls?"

Tooru and Yuujiro had a very difficult time keeping their composure.

"L-look, Mikoto. Every relationship is different. You need to focus on what was wrong between you and Megumi-san."

Yuujiro nodded in affirmation, and Tooru felt quite sage.

"It wasn't something wrong! It's just that she thinks I'm gay and that I cheated on her."

"Well... isn't she right?" Yuujiro jeered.

"NO!"

Tooru elbowed Yuujiro.

Yuujiro glared at Tooru.

Mikoto took an extremely angry sip of his frozen strawberry swirl drink.

"Yuujiro's sorry," Tooru supplied.

"He isn't," Mikoto whined.

"I'm not," Yuujiro muttered.

"It doesn't matter," Tooru sighed. "Mikoto? Didn't you say your sister and your girlfriend were friends?"

"Yeah..." Mikoto ruefully licked the whipped cream from his straw.

"Well can't you ask your sister to let Megumi-san know that you didn't betray her? Or at least get her to call you?"

"My sister's the problem! The truth is... I've never had a girlfriend before Megumi-san, and my sister always said that it meant I didn't like girls. So when I started dating her best friend, she got angry."

"Was she angry that you were dating her friend or that you weren't gay?"

"...both"

"That's weird, man."

"Shut up, Yuujiro!"

Tooru placed a hand on Yuujiro's thigh and gave him a warning look.

"How far away do you live, Mikoto?"

"About an hour by train. Why?"

"Because all three of us are going to visit her and set things straight. We'll go next weekend."

"Really?" Mikoto's eyes sparkled with tears. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course, Mikoto. We're your friends."

"I never said I would go," drawled Yuujiro.

"You will," Tooru replied with absolute certainty. "But Mikoto, it comes at a price."

"It does?" Mikoto shrunk into his seat.

Tooru shared a knowing smirk with Yuujiro. "For the rest of the week," Tooru began.

"You will be the best princess among us," Yuujiro added.

"You will be beautiful!"

"And elegant!"

"And feminine!"

"And chic!"

"And you shall never complain!"

"Not even once, Tooru?"

"No, Yuujiro, not even once."

Tooru and Yuujiro's eyes flashed with malice, and Mikoto wondered, not for the first time, if he could really consider these people his friends.

"F-fine." Mikoto rose from his chair. "I'll be the best, prettiest Princess all week, and show Megumi-san what a man I am!" Mikoto grabbed his cup and gulped down the remainder of his frozen strawberry swirl drink. Without even pausing to lick the remnants of whipped cream from the cup, he turned to leave. He only made three dramatic steps, however, before stopping and clutching his head.

"Mikoto?" Tooru ventured.

"B-brain freeze."

One mere awkward moment later, Mikoto righted himself, and continued his triumphant path out of the shop.

"Poor Mikoto," Tooru shook his head.

"It's his own fault," Yuujiro grumbled. "And I can't believe you're making me go see his girlfriend."

"C'mon, it'll be fun. What else would you do on the weekend?"

Yuujiro pointedly glanced at Tooru's hand, which was still firmly placed on his thigh. "I can think of a few things," he smirked.

"Shut up." Tooru snapped back his hand in what was meant to be an angry display, all the while fighting to keep a smile off his face.

Yuujiro only laughed. "I'm done." He shook his empty cup. "Want to go?"

"Can't we grab another cup? I don't want to do homework."

"We're students, Tooru. We can't afford refills."

"Hello there!" Tooru glanced up to find a pretty blonde sporting a messy pony-tale and a blue Kathy's Coffee apron. "Um, I couldn't help but overhear you, and... um... we're actually having a special event today. Free refills between 2 and 5."

"Sweet." Yuujiro flashed a smile, and the girl fluttered her eyes spastically, as if she'd been blinded.

She shook her head and picked up the cups. "Medium roast black coffee and a non-fat latte right? You guys are regulars, so um... I remembered."

"And you work here every day we're here, right? I remember you." Yuujiro leant closer to the girl, Princess smile still firmly in place. Although... it didn't look quite as forced as it did when Yuujiro was playing Princess. In fact, Tooru had only seen that kind of expression directed toward himself... and usually only at night... Yuujiro couldn't be hitting on her. Could he? "I see you around all the time. Isn't it funny that I don't even know your name?"

"I-it's Crystal." Was it just him, or was that girl blushing? "I go to the public school only about a block from here. B-but, sorry! You never asked that... um... What's your name?"

"Yuujiro." His voice was suddenly low... husky. Tooru had a sudden urge to punch him right in his overtly seductive face.

"O-oh. That's really... I like that. I-I mean... I'll go get your drinks!" And the diabolical seductress ran - and stumbled - toward her evil lair in the kitchen.

Tooru didn't know he was glaring until Yuujiro scrunched his brow and asked _oh_ so innocently "What's wrong?"

"You idiot! You... you..." Tooru trailed off. What _had_ Yuujiro done wrong?

_Cheated on him._

_ Betrayed him._

_ Flirted with a woman right in front of him._

...But given their odd relationship, there wasn't technically anything _wrong_ with that.

"Y-you didn't even introduce me," Tooru huffed instead.

Yuujiro laughed. "Well you should have made a move! I didn't think she was your type." Yuujiro leant in conspiratorially. "And did you see her tits?"

Tooru thought he was going to be sick. "No. I didn't," he snapped.

Just then, the best-friend-stealing-whore returned, gnawing her lip, face red as a tomato. "H-here are your drinks!" The cups had barely touched the table when she ran - and stumbled -off.

"Sweet!" Yuujiro shoved a napkin in Tooru's face. "She wrote her number!"

Tooru didn't say anything. He couldn't even open his mouth. He was sure if he did that he would either scream, cry, or splash his latte in Yuujiro's face - or maybe all three.

Instead, he grit his teeth, swatted Yuujiro's hand away and stormed out of the cafe.


End file.
